This rosary was given to Derek Bentleyafter he was arrested for the murder of a police officerin 1952.

Derek and Christopher Craig broke into a warehouse in Croydon.Christopher shot one policeman dead.

They were both arrested and stood trial.Derek was sentenced to deathand hanged in 1953.

Iris Bentley

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Iris Bentley

Derek’s sister tells us about the events:

“Age 3 when he had a fall on the back of his head and about 3 weeks later he went into a fit and that was his first one.

He couldn’t even go in the army
cause he had the lowest grade possible.”

“After he’d been to Bristol because he got into trouble urinating up a wall and a woman rung up and called the police and then when he came home he was so embarrassed because he’d been sent away he locked himself in the house for nearly a year he wouldn’t go out and then the first day he went out there was this boy hanging on the corner called Christopher Craig.”

“And - he said, ‘I know all about you’ and - he said, ‘what do you mean?’, he said, ‘I know where you’ve been’ and we think he held it over Derek and if Derek didn’t do what he said.”

“Half past eleven all of a sudden there was a bang at the door and we always, even in those days, ‘who is it?’ and they said, ‘police officers’ open this door -I open the door and as I opened it they pushed me flying cause he’s supposed to have called out, ‘let them have it’.”

“You see Craig was too young and one of their colleagues has been killed and Derek fitted the picture right, completely, see and every day we went in and my dad said, ‘now think, did you speak on the roof?’ And he said, ‘I was too frightened.’ So he said, ‘I gave myself up to Fairfax and he left me standing there and I could have ran away but I didn’t.”

“The evidence was all piled up against him, so all the time till he died it didn’t matter what we done every stone we turned it was turned back,every door we opened, it was closed in our face and he came to the 28th January and you know what happened then, but we made a vow to him that we would always carry on no matter what till we cleared his name and that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.”

The death penalty

Christopher Craig was only 16when he was arrested.Derek was over 18and could be sentenced to deatheven though he didn’t fire the shot.

At the trial it was revealedthat Derek suffered from epilepsyand had learning difficulties.

After his executionDerek’s family campaignedfor a pardon.

Find out more

To find out more about Derek Bentley
and his families fight to clear his name
Visit the BBC website